


Cure and Meet

by AU_Queen



Series: Younger Winchester and Co. [1]
Category: RWBY, Supernatural
Genre: Cardin is a Winchester brother, First Meetings, Gen, Mentions of vampires, RWBY in the Supernatural universe, Strangers to Friends, badass!Velvet, hunter!Cardin, hunter!Velvet, the books by Carver Edlund are briefly mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-08 12:09:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14693934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AU_Queen/pseuds/AU_Queen
Summary: When he woke up, it felt like he'd woken from a nightmare.





	Cure and Meet

**Author's Note:**

> Remember when I said the story of Cardin and the brothers meeting might have opened a can of worms? Well, it did.
> 
> Because I know it's not obvious in this, this takes place in 2010 around the time of "Sam, Interrupted". Cardin is twenty four and Velvet is twenty six.

He'd been hunting alone for seven years without any problems. Or, without any major problems. So this was a first for him. An annoying, annoying first.

Technically it had started about four months ago. That was when he had first set foot in the vampire nest. He had went in while the vamps should've been sleeping. Everything was going according to plan. Then one of them had hit him from behind. Next thing he knew, he'd been turned. Somehow, after the turning, he was still able to kill the nest. Though he knew the vamp who'd done the turning had escaped. But that was fine for the moment, he would find them soon enough. By the time he'd even realized they'd gotten away, the adrenaline had already started to wear off anyway. So he was more focused on not drinking blood. He may of been turned, but he would die before he fully became one of those blood suckers.

 

When he woke up, it felt like he'd woken from a nightmare. Months of starvation had started to wear on his nerves, making him experience and sense things that weren't there. Now everything was quiet. The hunger was just a dull pain in the pit of his stomach. He went back over the months. What felt like ages of complete isolation. What could've been years of hunger, with moments of relief by whatever unfortunate animal had crossed his path. It was difficult. Oh, so very difficult. But now he could feel that the heightened senses were back to normal. The pounding in his brain had gone down. But he wasn't dead. He knew he wasn't dead, because if he was then he shouldn't be feeling pain. A sudden noise made him jump slightly in surprise. It sounded like something metallic had fallen, followed by a shout of ‘I meant to do that!’.

A quick glance of his surroundings only made it even clearer. Peeling, ugly browning wallpaper. Lumpy mattress. Weird stains, a drip from the ceiling, and the overwhelming smell of must, mildew, and rot. All signs of a seedy motel just like the ones he's been in a million times through the years of hunting. Yep. Either he was alive or this was hell.

“You're finally awake, that's good,” the same voice he'd heard earlier floated into the room. It was quiet, quieter than it should've been after being turned, and he looked up in surprise. It was a girl with long brown hair and a face he thought he vaguely recognized. Only a second passed before he realized that he couldn't hear her heartbeat or any blood pumping. More words broke in through his thoughts before he could really question it, “-lucky I found you, you know.”

“Am I?” He questioned lowly, painfully. His voice had gone unused for most of the time he was alone. Now it felt dry, tongue fat in his mouth and lips cracked beyond repair.

“Yeah. You almost died.” She held a bowl out toward him. Steam swirled from the green plastic and he glanced between it and the girl who held it. He narrowed his eyes, unwilling to take the bowl. It was unlikely that they were a vampire, trying to force him to drink human blood. After all this time any vamp that came across him was more likely to either kill him, or leave him alone and let the inevitable happen. But she waved it in front of him, causing the little plastic spoon to swirl in the golden liquid. It smelled so nice and it didn't resemble the dark, red hue of blood. His stomach growled but he still held firm and didn't take it. It wouldn't be the first time his mind had played tricks on him, trying to get him to eat.

“Look, I'm not a vamp and this isn't blood. It's just some good, store bought, microwavable chicken soup,” she sighed at him. “I understand that you don't trust me. But since I did turn you back and save your life, I'd like to be given the benefit of the doubt.”

Cardin raised an eyebrow at her. She still hadn't fully convinced him it wasn't a trick. The girl just rolled her eyes and placed it down on the wooden bedside table along with a napkin covered in crackers. He watched as she walked over to sit down at the little table in the corner of the room. Waited for a minute to assure himself that her attention had been adequately captured by the laptop in front of her. Then he reached over and grabbed a cracker to nibble on. It was highly unlikely the small piece of food somehow contained human, and the salty substance felt nice in his empty stomach. Without thinking, he grabbed the other ones and quickly stuffed them down his throat. Which was the worst mistake he could've made. Months with barely any food caught up to him quickly, and he retched once before everything came back up over the side of the bed.

“Nice one.” The girl had turned to stare at him. Her unimpressed gaze matched his for only a moment before she turned away. “I'm not cleaning that up.” He doesn’t know why, but something in her voice brought a chuckle out of him. A chuckle that too long of a time without humour soon made devolve into a full-blown laugh. The girl blinked at him in surprise and her murmur of ‘oh god, you're delirious’ only made him laugh harder. Something in the back of his mind told him that she was probably right. He _was_ d elirious. Delirious, and beginning to feel more and more dizzy. In fact, he was certain that the room hadn’t been tilting _quite_ that much a few seconds ago.

 

“Welcome back to land of the living.” The girl was there, looking down at him with sarcasm heavy in her tone, when he woke up again.

“Thanks,” he groaned. Smacked his dry mouth in disgust when he felt the acidic burn from spitting up earlier at the back of his throat, the taste lingering darkly in his mouth.

“So, what did we learn?” the girl asked. She had straightened up so she no longer leaned over him, and her hands were placed firmly on her hips.

“Don't know,” Cardin told her and rolled his eyes.

“Really?” she asked, eyebrow raised and voice clearly laced by annoyance, “How about ‘I learned to not eat that fast after almost starving myself to death and to eat what is given to me’.” Air quotes were used, along with a look that left little room for argument. But Cardin was good with using any room he was given.

“I'm glad you learned something from me,” he told her with a smile. The girl glared at the response, her nostrils flaring and left eye twitching, and Cardin was suddenly glad she didn't have a sharp object on her. A quiet voice in the back of his mind reminded him that he wasn't sure of that, and he shifted a little in the bed. Maybe that wasn't the best thing to say. “Look, I appreciate the help. I really do. But if you're all done, I'd like to go back to what I was doing.”

“Oh, really?” She leaned back, her expression no longer upset but instead carefully blank. It worried him more than the anger. “Back to the edge of death?”

“No, back to-” he cut himself off. He tried his best not to let ordinary people know about monsters, and wasn't sure where to go with the sentence. So instead he closed his mouth with a click of his teeth.

“Hunting?” she finished for him. “In this condition, I don't think so. You're staying here for a few more days until I'm sure you can go back out there without immediately getting yourself killed.”

Cardin opened his mouth to argue, but flashed back to a few seconds ago and thought better of it. So he asked the question her words gave him instead. “How'd you know?”

“How'd I know what? That you're a hunter?” she asked him and he nodded. “It's because of your scars. They're hunters scars. _Monster_ _hunter_ scars.” She answered easily.

“And you know about all of this _how_?” Cardin raised a suspicious eyebrow at her.

“It's a bit of a family business.” She shrugged nonchalantly before a far away look came over her, “At least it was.”

“... Oh.” Cardin frowned at her, the implication of that sentence fully hitting him in a matter of seconds.

“Yeah, but it's fine. We're hunters. We know what comes with the business,” she told him.

“Yeah.” He nodded and looked away for a minute before looking back, “So what's your name?”

“Velvet Scarlatina. Yours?”

“Cardin Ellis. Nice to meet you,” Cardin said.

“I'd shake your hand, but I don't want to get puke juice on my skin,” Velvet gave him a half smile and Cardin scoffed. A surprisingly companionable silence fell over them. Cardin took the time to reach out next to him and grab the bowl of now cold soup. He took a gulp of the liquid and immediately gagged.

“That's what happens when you let gas station soup get cold,” Velvet laughed. Cardin have her a bitch face, which only made her laugh harder. It didn't take him long to laugh with her, the sound of her humour infectious.

“Seriously though. Thanks for all your help, but I gotta go. I've been away for long enough,” Cardin threw his legs over the side of the bed and braced himself to stand up. The second he put weight on his legs, he went down like a bag of bricks. Velvet gave him a pointed look and stabbed him in the shoulder.

“See, that's what happens when vampirism is cured, and you don't let your body fully rest.” There was a hard edge to her voice, but he was kinda stuck on the first thing she said.

“You… cured me?” Cardin questioned her. He didn't know there was a cure.

“Yeah, didn't you wonder why all those bullshit vampire super senses disappeared?” She gave him an odd, questioning look.

“It did cross my mind, but I was still a bit busy with the worry that you’d somehow trick me into drinking human blood,” Cardin threw back. “So how'd you do it?”

“There's a cure, made by the Campbell family. My family was lucky enough to get our hands on it when my brother was turned. It saved him, so I figured it could save you too,” Velvet told him.

“Thank you,” Cardin smiled at her. Then he tried to stand up again. Velvet rolled her eyes and took pity on him once again, helping him up and back onto the bed. With a frown he looked down at his clothes, “I don't think these are mine.” He pulled them away from his body. They were slightly baggy, and he wondered why he hadn't noticed them sooner. Of course, like he said he was a little occupied.

“They're not,” she agreed and Cardin gaped at her.

“You- you changed my clothes?” In shock he pulled the pants he was wearing far enough away from himself to look down at his underwear. They were not his underwear. He'd never willingly wear pink underwear.

“Oh, would you grow up,” Velvet rolled her eyes at him again. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. “I've dressed my brother's wounds a number of times, which included bathing and changing. And you smelled like you took a dip in a sewer, then rolled around in garbage, and then went for a walk through a used litter box. And there was no way in hell I was gonna let _that_ smell linger. So yeah, I bathed and changed you.”

Cardin felt himself pale. “That wasn't cool.”

“What wasn't cool was your smell and wounds.” Velvet jabbed his shoulder again, “If it makes you feel any better, I didn't look.”

“Only slightly,” Cardin mumbled. Then he braced his hands on either side of himself and pushed himself up again. The room tilted for a second, his body swayed, his brain pounded. His hand shot out to the wall next to him and Velvet reached out to help him steady himself, but he held up a finger. He had this. Really, he did. After a minute he straightened up. “So, thank you again for all your help. But I’m gonna go now.”

“Really?” Velvet stepped away from him and placed her hands on her hips again. Cardin guessed it was probably her ‘I’m not taking this’ pose. Instead of answering her, he just reached for his coat that was thankfully draped over a chair that sat near the bed. He could smell the peach soap that still lingered on the leather material when he pulled it on, and it made him smile slightly. Then he moved for the door. “You’re an idiot. I’m not letting you out that door. Not until you’ve recovered fully.” And Velvet moved to stand between him and the door. He glared at her, though from her look it wasn’t effective in the slightest.

“Look, I’ve made it all these years without help, and I’m not starting now,” Cardin told her. He tried to hide the sway in his stance as he went to force his way past her. It didn’t work, and soon he was on the floor yet again.

“Is that what this is about? You’re so desperate to be the perfect little lone hunter that you’ll get your ass killed?” Velvet narrowed her eyes at him, then shook her head. “Fine. Let my work go to waste. But you’re going to have to get through me before you do.”

“That’ll be easy,” Cardin snorted and moved to get back up so he could get through Velvet. He made it about three steps in her direction before she had his face smooshed against the scratchy carpet and his arm high against his back. A rush of air went through his teeth and he suppressed his urge to give any indication of his pain. She let go after a few seconds, and he sat back up on his knees to roll his shoulder. Then he tried again. And again it ended with his face as one with the carpet, and his arm in the most uncomfortable place it’d been in a long time. Third time, he knew he was probably going to have carpet burn on his left cheek and was certain that he felt a pop in his right shoulder. “I think you dislocated my arm,” he grumbled from his place on the ground, his voice muffled by the dirty brown carpet that he was confident didn’t start off as brown. Velvet pulled him off the ground, careful of his shoulder. Then she roughly yanked it back into place, and Cardin couldn’t stop the hiss of pain from escaping through his teeth.

“Oh, calm down,” Velvet rolled her eyes and Cardin glared, hand on his shoulder. “So, you ready to stay here and heal or does your face need to acquaint itself with the carpet some more?” Cardin grumbled a bit, but he didn’t say anything as he made his way to the bed and sat back down. Velvet gave him a look that said she was pleased and hummed as she made her way to where the mini fridge sat.

“So how long am I gonna have to stay here?” Cardin asked from his spot against the headboard.

Velvet thought in silence as she removed a lid from a container and placed it in the microwave. She pressed a few numbers and started it, then turned back to Cardin and leaned against it with her arms folded in front of her as the whirling of the machine started up. “You slept for a while, but you’re also pretty dizzy and haven’t eaten in- how many months?”

“About four.” Cardin shrugged his shoulders like it didn’t really matter. Which for him, it didn’t. Eating sparingly and never touching human blood kept him from fully changing, and he’d do it again if he had to.

“Well, holy shit.” Velvet blinked at him in surprise, “In that case, I’d say it’ll take between five to nine days.”

“Five to nine-” Cardin shot away from the headboard and went to leave the bed again, “I can’t be here for that long.”

“Do you really wanna try that again?” Velvet asked him with a brow raised in challenge. Cardin slowly lowered himself back to the headboard. No one could say he didn’t learn from his mistakes, even if it took him awhile to get them through his head. “That’s what I thought.” He angrily grumbled at her in response. Before anything else could be said between them, the microwave beeped. She grabbed the bowl of food from it and placed it in front of Cardin. This time he ate. And he ate slowly.

 

As the days passed, Cardin was sure he would die of boredom. His only savior was the books of lore Velvet had. Even if he already knew more than half the content of the books, reading them was better than doing nothing. That, and it never hurt to brush up on the lore. It reminded him of things he’d forgotten, and taught him some new things. She also gave him the Winchester Gospels and he couldn’t help but scoff as he read about how his older brothers broke the world.

“These two are idiots,” he said as he pushed the last book,  _ Abandon All Hope _ , across the table and back to its owner.

“What?” Velvet looked away from her laptop to stare at him in confusion.

“Dean and Sam, they're idiots,” Cardin told her again and folded his arms over the tabletop, placing his head in the middle of them.

“What makes you say that?” she asked him.

“For one, they broke the world.” He gestured to the book like that answered everything. It kinda did.

“I see what you mean.” Velvet nodded. “Though, Dean did make it a long time before he caved and unwittingly broke the first seal.”

“Yeah, but if Sam had only listened to him, he never would've broken the final one,” Cardin grossed.

“That is true,” Velvet agreed.

“And don't even get me started on John, I hated him enough already as it was. Now I just have more reason to hate him.” Cardin moved his arm to accent his words.

“Wait,” Velvet paused, “You hated him before? You already knew about the Winchesters?”

“Loosely, yeah,” Cardin said.

“How?”

“Well, uh,” Cardin swallowed thickly and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, “Ellis is actually my mother’s maiden name. Amanda Ellis. My father on the other hand, he was an asshole by the name of John… Winchester.” Cardin smiled a pained smile from his place on his arms. He watched as realization slowly dawned on Velvet’s face and her jaw dropped open.

“So, you're-” She started, but couldn't quite seem to get out the rest of her words.

“Their brother? I guess.”

“So, where do you fit in?”

“Behind Sam and a few years before Adam. I'm the one he never visited, though I'm sure he knew about me,” Cardin told her, anger written clear as day across his features.

“Wow, that sucks. So why'd you become a hunter anyway?” Velvet asked,

“My mother died, thanks to an unfinished job, so I became a hunter to find that asshole.” Cardin shrugged. “Then I kinda fell in love with the job, you know, saving people. It's nice.”

“Yeah, it is.” Velvet voiced her agreement. “So… what were you gonna do if you found him? ‘Cause I know with the way you look, you weren’t planning on a hug.”

“You’re right, I wasn’t. I was gonna punch him in the jaw. Maybe put a bullet in his lap, not sure. I never made it close enough to decide.”

Velvet nodded her understanding. There was a stretch of companionable silence between the two of them after that, something they had gotten used to over these five days of being around each other. Then, “Now that I think about it, you do kinda resemble the books description of Dean.”

 

Two more days passed before Velvet finally deemed him ready to hunt. He was more than ecstatic to get back out on the road, but something stopped him. It confused him because he knew he was ready. He felt ready. Really, truly ready to get back out there doing what he did best. What was in his blood.

It didn't take long for him to realize what stopped him.

“So, this is it. Guess I'll see ya on the flip side, bitch.” Velvet smiled at him, her backpack of gear hefted up high on her right shoulder.

“Did you really just?” Cardin sighed at her. She really was a fan of those stupid Carver Edlund books.

“Yes, yes I did.” She smiled cheekily at him, and he couldn't stop the fond roll of his eyes.

“Jerk,” he told her and she beamed at him.

“Ah, to hear that line from a Winchester.” Part of him flinched slightly at being referred to with that name. He rarely went by it, the anger at John kept him from it. That, and it made hunting slightly more difficult sometimes, what with Winchester's being on the top of every monster's hit list.

“Just Ellis, please,” he asked her and she smiled sheepishly.

“Sure, Ellis,” she conceded. “So, where you headed to now, Car?”

He inwardly rolled his eyes at the use of the nickname. It only took her till the second day for her to shorten it to that. No one had ever given him a nickname before, and at first it had honestly thrown him off. But at this point it just filled him with a fond warmth. And wasn't that weird? As she once called him, the ‘perfect little lone hunter’, now fond of being with someone else. The thought suddenly made it click in his head, and he knew why he didn't like this. What stopped him from fully wanting to go out on that road.

“Hey, Velv?” he started, and paused. He wasn't sure what to say, exactly. But she waved him on so he continued. “This is weird for me, because I've never wanted this before-”

“If you ask me to date you, I'm throwing your ass out that door,” Velvet interrupted him and roughly moved her thumb in the direction of the motel door.

“No,” Cardin cringed at the thought. It wasn't that Velvet wasn't cool, but she wasn't his ‘type’. Being a girl and all. “I was gonna ask if you'd like to come along.”

“That's funny, I was about to ask you the same thing,” she told him and opened the door to leave.

“No you weren't,” Cardin scoffed at her.

“I totally was,” Velvet assured him. She made her way out the door and to the car before she realized he hadn't followed her. “You coming?” she called out to him.

“Yeah.” he smiled to himself, “Yeah I am.”

He closed the door to room twenty five behind him, and made his way to Velvet’s little, brown car. His bag got thrown in the back seat before he climbed into the passenger seat. The interior was dirty, the seats were tan, and his knees hit the dashboard in front of him before he moved the seat back.

“This is a crap car,” he huffed and Velvet laughed.

“Yeah? Well it could've been worse.” She started the car and the engine sputtered a bit before it roared to life.

“Really, how?” he questioned, not believing her that it actually could've been any worse.

“It was between this and a Harley Davidson,” she told him as she backed out of the parking spot. He gaped at her in surprise and she laughed again, “You could've been clutching to my waist like a maiden as we tore through the countryside if I hadn't needed the trunk space.”

Cardin frowned at her as she maneuvered the car to travel down the empty country road, leaving two black skid marks in their wake as they tore down the road.


End file.
